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Music. Aziza Brahim sings Sahrawi time.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

Her sixth album, Mawja, returns to traditional sounds, reconnecting the Western Saharan artist with the stories and rhythms of her family. And to the struggle of the women and people of this land of conflict.

Aziza Brahim was born in 1976 in the Hammada of Tindouf, a Sahara Desert plateau in western Algeria nicknamed “the Devil’s Garden” for its inhospitality. Over 173 thousand Sahrawis have lived here for 48 years, living in exile in refugee camps located in the autonomous areas of the Tindouf Wilaya. Recognized as the voice of the Sahrawi people, we met Aziza Brahim on the occasion of the release of her sixth album Mawja:
a 10-track project produced by the label specializing in world
music Glitterbeat Records.

Over 173 thousand Sahrawis have lived here for 48 years, living in exile Hammada refugee camps located in the autonomous areas of the Tindouf Wilaya. File swm

How and when did you realise that music would be your way of life?
I was 6 or 7 years old when I discovered that I could sing, that I had a voice capable of entertaining and pleasing spectators. My maternal grandmother organized “competitions” at home where she and my mother were part of the jury and in which all the boys and girls of the family participated. I worked very hard during the performances.
The fact that I won them all made me think that maybe my voice was acceptable. But only a few years later, in Cuba, when I was the lead singer of the school band, did I begin to think about dedicating myself to music professionally.

“My commitment to spreading the Sahrawi cause” File swm

What inspires and influences you?
My maternal grandmother Ljadra Mint Mabruk [ed. internationally renowned poet and activist for Sahrawi liberation and self-determination] was my first ever influence. She has always motivated my creativity by challenging me to put her verses and her poems into music.
She was a real school for me, a source of learning also as a person due to her tenacity, conviction and pride. Regarding the artistic aspect, she conveyed to me her pleasure in poetry and music. Furthermore, I assimilated many musical influences from the old haima radio [ed. haima is typical Sahrawi tent] of my grandparents.

Are you committed to making the Sahrawi question known?
My commitment to spreading the Sahrawi cause is very simple: it consists of being and singing as a Sahrawi. Every daily act for us is a political act. Our way of speaking, our way of dressing, and our sense of belonging to the community are all political acts. Of course, I faced multiple obstacles in talking about it. Moroccan censors, for example, have sometimes tried to hinder my concerts.

“I sing to reaffirm the power of women”. File swm

How do you think the Sahrawi cause is treated and addressed at a global level?
The Sahrawi population has been in the refugee camps of Hammada, one of the most inhospitable deserts in the world, for almost 50 years. We live in haima or precarious buildings with serious shortages, no comfort, in minimal conditions. After the Covid-19 pandemic, international aid has greatly reduced. The situation is increasingly difficult for the refugee population.The international community is incapable of finding a solution: it seems that interests are more important than rights! I think that the major mass media do not want to inform about the Sahrawi struggle because it is not in their media interests. In my opinion, we must try to put this conflict under the spotlight because there is an entire population in limbo that suffers due to the silence, passivity or oblivion of the world political class.

Tell us about your latest album Mawja…
The creative process of Mawja’s songs helped me a lot to come out of a deep anxiety crisis. We may translate Mawja as Wave. It’s the word my grandparents said when they turned on the radio we had in the haima. The main themes are the passage of time, the tension between past and future, and the situation of the Sahrawi people. I wanted to pay homage to my grandparents’ great haima, the place where I was born and raised. Furthermore, I dedicated a prayer to my grandmother Ljadra Mint Mabruk [ed. Duaa], who passed away in October 2021. I sing to reaffirm the power of women, to remember the Sahrawi games of my childhood and the mythical bird Bubisher who brings good news to my culture.

“We may translate Mawja as Wave.”

Mawja is a return to simple songs, far from the electronic elements I played with in Sahari [2019]. There is a mix of traditional and modern instruments of roots music. I fused rhythmic elements of my Sahrawi culture with Iberian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and West African musical traditions. There is a profound fusion in this album between different types of traditional music. For example, different flutes are used: the ney, the Chinese hulusi and the Aymaran mohoceño. These traditional elements are then joined by more contemporary sounds and instruments such as the electric guitar, the drums, the double bass or the flamenco tres: a new instrument created by Raúl Rodríguez, an excellent Andalusian guitarist who plays it in the song Haiyu ya Zuwar. (Open Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0/Elekes Andor)

Nadia Addezio

Angola. A common home.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

The Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants (CEPAMI) and other civil society organizations have been working for years to give a dignified life to the thousands of migrants and refugees
in the country.

“The fundamental objective of CEPAMI is that refugees and migrants should move away from anonymity and invisibility and there is always a community that is spiritually and socially prepared to welcome, protect, promote and integrate everyone, without distinction”, says Sister Carla Frey Bamberg, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of Angola
and São Tomé (CEPAMI).

Sr Carla Frey Bamberg, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of Angola and São Tomé (CEPAMI). (Photo: José Luis Silván Sen)

Sister Carla, born in Paraguay but of Brazilian nationality, remembers how CEPAMI began in 2006 to promote, coordinate and animate the pastoral care of refugees and migrants and is today present in 19 Angolan dioceses and São Tomé.At the same time, Sister Carla Frey says that although CEPAMI is a commission of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé, its management and financing are the responsibility of the Scalabrinian Missionary Sisters.Currently, the missionary is supported by a team of three people and in each diocese, there is a structure made up of a priest and a group of lay people. The missionary confirms that more than 350 migrant pastoral workers, scattered throughout the country, have been trained since 2006 to carry out this specific work.

Refugees and migrants
Angola currently hosts about 57,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. This population is largely composed of DRC refugees and asylum-seekers, out of which 17% came during the 2017 mass influx from the Great Kasai. Other nationalities also make up the population of concern to UNHCR across Angola, such as Guineans, Ivorians, Mauritanians, Somalis, Sudanese, and Eritreans, totalling about 50,000 living mostly in urban areas.The vast majority of refugees and asylum seekers live in the capital. CEPAMI organizes training courses and develops professional training projects in sewing, hairdressing, literacy, cooking and manicure for these people in three neighbourhoods of the city. Although women are the priority, young people at risk of falling into drugs or prostitution are also invited to participate.
More than 30% of the Angolan population live on less than a dollar a day, but refugees and asylum seekers are, according to the Scalabrinian missionary, “more vulnerable than the rest of the local population, because they are undocumented and invisible to Angolan institutions”.

View of Luanda. The vast majority of refugees and asylum seekers live in the capital. File swm

Sanzala is a neighbourhood of Luanda where many refugees are concentrated, mostly Congolese, but also Burundians and Rwandans, and many of their children do not receive an education. Ângela Maria Paulo Osório, a Rwandan born in Angola and coordinator of CEFAMI activities at the refugee centre, said that one of the priorities is education and this has meant that many refugee children have been able to enter public schools with a good knowledge base.”
CEPAMI’s work within the country also focuses mainly on raising awareness through conferences and training workshops related to human mobility, to which, among others, public officials, educators and university students are invited. The convocation takes place on behalf of the Church and, thanks to the cordial relationship that CEPAMI maintains with the Secretary of State for Human Rights, Ana Celeste Cardoso, there is always active representation of the Government. Since she arrived in Angola just over a year ago, Sister Carla Frey has participated in conferences and seminars in 11 dioceses. For the Scalabrinian missionary, these activities are possible “thanks to the formidable commitment of the lay people who work in the field and who provide the necessary information, even on delicate and serious issues that we denounce, such as human trafficking”. She adds: “We know that the sale of children and human organs is increasing dramatically in Angola, which worries us greatly.”

Synergy
To join forces, in 2016, CEPAMI promoted the creation of the Angolan Network for the Protection of Migrants and Refugees, which brings together various ecclesial organisations – the Jesuit Refugee Service and the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace – , international organisations – the UNHCR – and Angolan civil society organisations – the OMUNGA Association, specialised in the defence of human and cultural rights. Together, they are working to broaden the scope of action in the protection of migrants and refugees.
The network meets regularly to reflect on and report concrete situations to the competent institutions.

Congolese refugees in Angola. The country currently hosts about 57,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. UNHCR/Lina Ferreira

One of the initiatives of interest is that every year, at the end of September, the immigration fair is organised, a cultural festival in which, in addition to the various refugee communities, Angolan and foreign businessmen participate. Each group or country has a booth where they display their music, food and other manifestations of their culture. “On that day, everything is shared – says Sister Carla – everyone tastes food from all over the world and no one goes hungry, it’s a very interesting cultural activity.”Another important event is a reflection conference, held every year in October. Members of the Government and various embassies participate in the meeting, but especially representatives of the various refugee and immigrant communities in Angola.
The purpose of these meetings, as Afonso Pedro Chamangongo, of the Episcopal Justice and Peace Commission, says, is to “help break down barriers and create links between institutions and refugees”. (Open Photo: canstockphoto)

Enrique Bayo

Tunisia. The future in the hands of young people.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

While the country is in the grip of a serious economic crisis, in the oasis city of Tozeur, the OxyJeunes youth Centre focuses on schooling and civic education: “Today our children are agents of change”, the director Moufida Hachef tells us.

Sugar, canned goods and some typical sweets are the products collected thanks to the collection in the shops of the Ras Edhraa district, in Tozeur, which will end up in the parcels destined for the
neediest families in this area inhabited largely by Bedouins
from the surrounding villages.

The idea comes from Asma, Mahmoud and their friends from the OxyJeunes Youth Centre, all born and raised in the oasis city surrounded by the Tunisian desert, 450 km south of Tunis, which until a few years ago was a thriving tourist destination. Today, however, Tozeur is struggling amid an unprecedented economic and social collapse.

The terrible crisis that has hit Tunisia is hitting harder here than elsewhere, precisely because the wealth of the area, together with the nation’s most prized dates, has always been represented by holidaymakers, who dropped significantly after the Islamic attacks and then disappeared completely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many hotels have never reopened since then, as is the case with numerous tourism-related businesses. In the meantime, the effects of the war in Ukraine, with the collapse of cereal imports and the increase in raw material prices, have hit Tunisians hard and today the situation is worsened by the drought, which is slowing down local production.

Thus, despite the iron fist of president-boss Saïed against speculators, empty supermarket shelves are now the norm and various products, from milk to flour, are rationed. In Ras Edhraa, due also to unemployment which reaches 25%, many families struggle to put food on the table: the packages prepared by the OxyJeunes youths will allow them to have something to eat.

The Centre is a creation of the “Amal pour la famille et l’enfant” association, a local reality created to give a chance for a future to a generation that grew up in a climate of disillusionment, after the hopes generated by the Jasmine revolution of 2011.

In a country where every year 100,000 students leave school before the age of 16 and where psychological disorders often arise at a very early age, it is essential to invest in young people, who make up a third of the Tunisian population but for whom there is no network of support that prevents cases of social hardship and deviance.

For this reason, some of the objectives of the Centre are to combat school dropout, cultivate the talents of young people in the most varied sectors, promote their potential but also their protagonism, and train them in active citizenship.

An after-school club, therefore, operates at the Ras Edhraa Centre, with reinforcement lessons for various subjects and foreign languages, but cultural, socialization and training initiatives are also organized on issues such as children’s rights, non-violent communication, environmental protection and more “There are various ‘clubs’ with proposals ranging from artistic workshops to sporting activities”, explains one of the centre’s operators.

They also underlining the attention to the families from which the children come: “For mothers, who often have no studies behind them, Amal offers literacy courses, while trying to train parents in their responsibilities and the value of education for the future of their children, who in many cases they would instead prefer to see leave for Europe.” Poverty remains a very strong driving force that pushes thousands of Tunisians to abandon their homeland.

In recent years, therefore, the association has decided to focus on the age range from high school to the start of university. An intuition of the director – and soul of the structure – Moufida Hachef, a 36-year-old who herself grew up in a poor family and achieved a baccalaureate in English Literature and Civilisation. “In these young people I see our future – explains Moufida -. We started with simple activities such as editing videos, writing a CV or using the internet.”

Amal also has an office in Tunis where she manages a professional training centre and a reception centre for single mothers. She has managed to return to the network of the Jeunes des 2 Rives programme, which aims to educate the new generations of Mediterranean countries in citizenship and international solidarity, through local construction sites – such as the one held in Tozeur and dedicated to environmental sustainability in the oasis – and abroad.

“Some of us – says Moufida – took part in exchanges in Morocco and France: a precious opportunity to see the world and also to realize that the solution is not always to emigrate because living conditions can be harsh even outside Tunisia”.

As they increased, the more ‘historical’ visitors to the Ras Edhraa Centre began to become its beating heart: “Slowly they began to take on some responsibilities, to help us with activities for the children and to engage in volunteering.

Today this structure is their second home. Its name, which is a play on words between the terms ‘oxygen’ and ‘youth’, reflects the opportunity to breathe the freedom and joy of expressing oneself, without stereotypes or gender discrimination. Here boys and girls have the same roles, everyone lends a hand and is involved in decisions.”

This gave rise to an Advisory Council made up of ten members, which organizes various community service activities: in addition to the food collection for poor families, the volunteers have recently carried out a project to redevelop some school buildings in the neighbourhood through repainting, cleaning and creating murals.

“Our Centre has become a real point of reference for families – says Moufida – and I try to make them understand that this can represent a springboard for their children towards a better future. Among the young people who have passed through here, some have now become teachers, those who work in the world of theatre… in whatever sector they have chosen to engage, they are becoming actors of change. It is people like them who hold the future of Tunisia in their hands, starting with their community.”

Chiara Zappa/MM

Nigeria. Lagos, the largest complex in the Guinea Gulf faces huge challenges.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

The Lagos complex, with the new Lekki container port and the neighbouring Tin Can Island port, is the largest maritime hub in the Gulf of Guinea. But Nigeria’s ports face many challenges, including congestion, corruption and piracy.

With an annual cargo volume of 27 million tonnes, the Port of Lagos is the second largest seaport in West Africa. The original Apapa Port, opened in 1913 and located on the Bay of Benin, remains the country’s oldest and largest in terms of both land area and cargo handled, with a total area of 80 hectares.
It has five private terminals operated by AP Moller, ENL Consortium Limited, Apapa Bulk Terminal, Greenview Development Nigeria Ltd and Lilypond Inland Terminal. These facilities handle cereals, grains, machinery, construction material, vehicles, food, minerals, fertilisers and industrial raw materials. The port also houses a crude oil and petroleum terminal beside four fishing wharves. In addition, it also boasts from a container capacity of 1,000,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).

Port of Lagos. It has five private terminals. Photo: Nigeria Ports Authority

In 1975, a second port was established at some 7 km from the centre of Lagos to the West of Apapa to cope with growing congestion problems. The Tin Can Island port handled in 2021 a cargo volume of 1.6 million tons including liquid bulk, dry cargo, roll on roll off and breakbulk on its 12 berths capable of accommodating 260 meters long vessels.
The port is also boasting from a container terminal managed by a consortium made of the China Merchants Holding International, the China Africa Development Fund and the Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company which was designed to handle 650,000 TEU annually.
Nigerian ports handle 2/3 of imports, mainly industrial equipment, refined petroleum, chemicals and food, and 1/3 of exports, mainly crude oil. Over the last five years, Nigerian ports handled an average of 77.6 million tonnes per year. However, data from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) shows that in 2023, traffic volume was below this level at only 70.48 million tonnes, while container traffic was 1.57 million TEUs, down from 1.68 million TEUs in 2022. There is a lot of room for improvement in the profitability of container terminals: on average, about 80% of the total export container traffic is empty. On the other hand, the average turnaround time of vessels will be four days in 2023, compared to 5.2 days in the previous year, due to the positive impact of the new Lekki Deep Seaport, located 65 km south-west of Lagos, which will achieve an average turnaround time of only one day.

Ships berthed at the Apapa wharf in Lagos. Shutterstock/Alucardion

According to Nicolas Sartini, the executive vice-president of the ports and terminals of the French-based CMA CGM Group which holds the sub-concession of the Lekki container port which was built in the Lagos Free Zone, this new infrastructure can accommodate vessels of a 18,000 TEU capacity and should be a game changer in West Africa. But under one condition: accordingly, it is necessary to improve the access roads to the port and the future industries including a cement factory scheduled to be built around the port. The new port which started its operations in 2023, is a partnership between the China Harbour Engineering Company which obtained the wider port concession for 45 years and has built the port, the Tolaram Group from Singapore, the State of Lagos and the Nigerian Port Authority.
The total investment of $ 1.65 million includes the construction of 50 hectares area with two container berths and a total annual capacity of 1.2 million TEU. Upon completion of the final phase, the port will reach a total capacity of 2.7 million TEU, larger than that of the port of Abidjan, just after the Ghanaian port of Tema which should reach a capacity of 3.5 million TEU by 2025.

Maersk Line arrives as MV Leto Monrovia leaves the port of Lagos. Shutterstock/ Dumbra

With the construction of the Lekki Deep Seaport, the NPA expects to improve the port efficiency and cost-effective port operations and to reduce the delays in the import of raw materials and equipment. To that effect, the CEO of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko has made plans for advancing automation and digitalization.
The NPA also hopes to capitalize on the African Continental Free Trade Area agreements to develop the port activities.
Yet, a number of challenges must be addressed. One of the most important is the congestion at the Port of Lagos which explains why a significant portion of the cargo destinated to Lagos or originating from there transits through Cotonou (Benin) and Lomé (Togo). Lagos depends also sizeably from the collaboration with the ports of Abidjan, Tanger and Tema. Lomé is a serious competitor with a volume of cargo of 22.6 million tonnes and a container capacity potential of 1.5 m TEU in 2019. It is estimated that inefficient service delivery and gridlock have made Nigeria lose a total of 56 million tons of cargo to Togo, Benin, Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana between 2016 and 2020. The Danish consultant Dynamar estimates that the port of Lagos is losing $ 55 million per day because of the congestion.
According to the European Journal of Maritime Research, in November 2022, the Nigerian ports had the highest cargo dwell time in West Africa, being 475% times higher than the global average of 4 days, 64% higher than that of Cotonou, 53% higher than that of Tema and 156% higher than that of Lome. The average dwell time in Nigeria was 23 days in 2017 against 9 days for Cotonou, 14 days for Lome and 15 days for Tema. Accordingly, the transactional dwell time (spent in formalities with customs authorities) accounted for 73% of the total cargo dwell time. Nigeria ranked 110th on a list of 160 countries established by the World Bank in 2018, in terms of port logistics.

View of Lagos. Due to the large urban population and port traffic volumes, Lagos is classified as a Medium-Port Megacity. File swm

According to the French strategy consultant OKAN Partners, port logistics has improved since the average time spent by a ship at berth is now lower than two days in Nigeria like in Ghana or Togo. But the immobilization of containers in Apapa is still too long (22 days as against 12 days for Douala and Luanda).
According to the Manager of Lagos Port Complex Apapa, Charles Okaga, many challenges still hamper its efficiency, including the manual examination of cargoes by customs due to lack of scanners and the poor access roads. Beside logistical challenges, the efficiency of the port is also negatively affected by fraudulent customs practices.
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, which is mainly perpetrated by Nigerian gangs remains challenging. Pirates are often well armed and violent. They attack and hijack ships and kidnap crews along or far from the coast in rivers, anchorages, ports and surrounding waters. Generally, all waters in off Nigeria remain highly risky, reports the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce. Vessels are advised to be vigilant as many incidents go unreported. Kidnapping for ransom remains the biggest risk for crews. In 2023 alone, 23 incidents were reported in the Gulf including one hijacking, seven kidnappings, one combination of both and firing upon vessels on four occasions. There were also 10 boardings , according to the US Office of Naval Intelligence January 2024 report. Incidents occurred in Angola, Togo and Ivory Coast rather than in Nigeria itself. Clearly, after a significant decline in 2021 and 2022 piracy was on the rise again last year.
The relative progress was owed to Nigeria’s Deep Blue Project, launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2021 with the creation of “The Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency’ (NIMASA) which allowed a combination of Nigeria’s navy, army, air force, and police to cooperate to counter piracy.

Barbed wire or razor wire attached to the ship hull, superstructure and railings to protect the crew against piracy attack passing Gulf of Guinea. Shutterstock/ Luciavonu

Another reason for the drop in piracy was the decision in 2022 by the Nigerian government to hire one of the most important gang bosses, the former rebel leader turned strong-man, Tompolo believed to be in control of Nigeria’s strongest militia/criminal network responsible for a majority of the pirate activity in the Gulf. Indeed, on that year, following a period of unprecedented pirate activity and industrial scale theft from oil pipelines, the Nigerian authorities awarded a pipeline security contract worth about $ 200 million per year to Tompolo, adapting the proverb that the best rangers are former poachers. The involvement in 2021 and 2022 of several Western navies from United States, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Italy France and the UK had a deterrent effect: in 2021 and 2022, attack numbers were significantly lower than preceding years. But these foreign navies often lack the legal instruments to arrest pirates. (Ship with oil rig in the background in the Nigerian capitol Lagos. Shutterstock/vanhurck)
F.M.

Guinea Bissau. Democracy can wait.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

President Sissoco Embaló does not tolerate dissonant voices and continues to present himself as an authoritarian normalizer of political life. However, he does not control parliament and a second presidential term is not certain.

Since before gaining independence, Guinea-Bissau has been the scene of personalistic disputes and individual ambitions. The assassination of Amílcar Cabral, the historic leader who had led the independence process of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, which occurred a few months before the proclamation of unilateral independence from Portugal (1973), marked the history of the western African country.

Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló, president of Guinea-Bissau since February 2020. CC BY 4.0/ Kremlin.ru

No longer having a leader, Guinea-Bissau has lost itself between coups d’état – the first, in 1980, by Nino Vieira, against the then president, Luís Cabral -, drug trafficking (so much to transform the small nation into the first narco -African state) and widespread poverty. It is possible to say that there has never been a prolonged period of institutional tranquillity in Guinea-Bissau. The country went from one transition to another, without interruption, until reaching the last presidential experience, that of Sissoco Embaló.

Weak institutions
Embaló is a military man, specializing in international relations and defence policy, who conceives politics as a game with only two categories: winners and losers. He was a collaborator of several African leaders, including Gaddafi, and is accused of winking at Islamic extremism, even though his wife is Catholic. With presidential ambitions, Embaló had carried out a presidential campaign – which then led him to a disputed second-round election in 2020 – with typically populist tones and themes: the death penalty for drug traffickers and bandits, prison for those who beg for a piece of bread in the streets and systematic denigration of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) treated like a cancer to be got rid of.

View of the National People’s Assembly (Assembleia Nacional Popular) in the city of Bissau. Shutterstock/ TLF Images

Friend of then Brazilian President Bolsonaro and advocate of a more aggressive foreign policy than his predecessors, Sissoco is demonstrating a total absence of democratic culture. Human rights are violated, there is a strong limitation of freedom of expression and of the press, and of the rights of association and demonstration, as Freedom House itself (a Washington-based NGO that monitors human rights) confirmed in its recent report. However, to understand the series of alleged coups d’état, shootings and various conflicts that have taken place in recent months, also deserving the attention of the UN Secretary General, Guterres, it is necessary to frame everything in a more general context, typical of the political action of several African presidents.

Power first of all
Embaló’s main objective is to stay in power for as long as possible. He is convinced that he must complete a mission, bring order to the country, preventing the “cancer” of the PAIGC from returning to guide him. In this way, all the tools to avoid the political risk of losing one’s power are good. Firstly, the postponement of the elections, as happened with the legislative elections which were held on 4 June 2023, almost a year late. And which sanctioned the return of the PAIGC to an absolute majority in parliament. Secondly, the sabotage of his opponents, which, however, he has had to live with since last June. The fact that the government led by Geraldo Martins – whom Sissocó himself had appointed, in agreement with the presidency of the PAIGC – was dissolved in a rather unexpected manner, to create a presidential-initiated executive demonstrates that Sissocó is trying to divide his opponents, currently favourites for this year’s presidential elections. Finally, the latest tactic used by the president is the dissolution of parliament, with very weak justification and outside the constitutional provisions.

Street scene in the city of Bissau. Embaló’s main objective is to stay in power for as long as possible.123rf

He did so in May 2022, announcing elections for December, which were then postponed until June of the following year; and he did it again in early December 2023. In short, the strategy to maintain power now seems consolidated: to limit dissonant voices as much as possible (including parliament, but also the press, in addition to the parties that oppose him), and propose himself as the “lone man in command”, the sole normaliser of political life.

Vote 2024
This personalistic and authoritarian plan is causing, however, the opposite effect: great institutional instability, planned and practised by Embaló himself, a country in disaster, and yet another transition in sight, that of the presidential elections. A very delicate step that Embaló will probably try to avoid and postpone as much as possible, as he has always done during his mandate, to prolong his presidential experience. Given the next elections, we can expect just anything from the president in office, given his anxiety about completing the “mission”. (Map of Guinea Bissau on grunge paper. 123rf)

Luca Bussotti

African military spending up 22% in 2023 with DRC leading the push.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

African military spending rose by 22% between 2022 and 2023, according to a new report, with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seeing the biggest increase to its military budget globally at 105% as the central African country battles multiple security threats.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in a new report on world military spending, found that the DRC saw the largest percentage increase in military spending – 105% – by any country in 2023 – greater even than Ukraine. There has been and is protracted conflict between government and non-state armed groups in the Central African country, with an estimated 200 militias and armed groups operating in the region, as well as Red Tabara rebels aiming to destabilise neighbouring Burundi.

In 2023 the DRC’s military spending more than doubled to reach $794 million. The 2023 increase coincided with growing tensions with Rwanda, a surge in clashes with non-state armed groups, and a move by the government to strengthen the DRC’s armed forces after it demanded the early withdrawal of a large-scale United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country. This is being replaced by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIDRC), which includes South African troops.

South Africa has emerged as a key supplier to the DRC, with Paramount delivering 25 Maatla armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to the DRC police in 2023, and 20 Mbombe 4 APCs to the DRC military in early 2023. The Democratic Republic of Congo is also acquiring aircraft from Paramount, and is receiving six Mwari intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms.

Last year it emerged that the DRC had acquired nine CH-4 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Other recent deliveries include 30 Calidus MCAV-20 armoured vehicles from the United Arab Emirates, various new small arms and light weapons from various suppliers, and seven second hand OH-58 and UH-1H helicopters from the United States.

Africa Intelligence earlier in May indicated the DRC will be acquiring 185 Hizir armoured personnel carriers from Turkey’s Katmerciler this year under a $75 million agreement.

Reports suggest that Felix Tshisekedi’s government has approved an ambitious military spending plan, worth $3.5 billion from 2022 to 2025, after the United Nations eased an arms embargo on the country in 2022. The DRC is looking to buy weapons from suppliers around the world, ranging from Indonesia to Russia.

As a whole, African military spending totalled $51.6 billion in 2023, which was 22% higher than in 2022 and 1.5% higher than in 2014, SIPRI reported. The rise in 2023 can be attributed to the 20% increase in spending by Nigeria – the subregion’s biggest military spender – and notable increases in spending by several other countries including the DRC and South Sudan.

Nigeria’s military spending was $3.2 billion in 2023. This included a supplementary budget that boosted the regular military budget by an additional 34%. The latest increase in Nigerian military spending comes against the backdrop of numerous ongoing security challenges.

South Sudan recorded the second highest percentage increase in military spending globally in 2023. Its spending rose by 78% to reach $1.1 billion, following a 108% increase in 2022.

The growth in spending can be attributed to escalating internal violence and the security challenges that have spilled over from the civil war in neighbouring Sudan, SIPRI noted.

At $28.5 billion in 2023, military expenditure by North African countries was up by 38% from 2022 and by 41% from 2014. Algeria and Morocco are by far the largest spenders in the subregion, together accounting for 82% of North African military expenditure in 2023. Algeria’s military spending grew by 76% to reach $18.3 billion. This was the highest level of expenditure ever recorded by Algeria and the largest annual increase in its spending since 1974.

The increase was facilitated by a sharp rise in revenue from gas exports to countries in Europe as they moved away from Russian supplies. In contrast, Morocco’s military spending decreased for the second consecutive year. It fell by 2.5% in 2023, to $5.2 billion.

Military expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa reached $23.1 billion in 2023, which was 8.9% higher than in 2022 but 22% lower than in 2014. SIPRI reported that world military expenditure rose in 2023 for the ninth consecutive year to an all-time high of $2 443 billion as war, rising tensions and insecurity manifest in various parts of the world.

“The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security. States are prioritising military strength but they risk an action–reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape,” Nan Tian, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said to coincide with the release of new data on global military spending. (Open Photo: Republican Guard soldiers with Calidus MCAV-20 armoured vehicles – Présidence RDC) – (Defence News)

The Bird that Colours the Zambezi River in Red.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

When the flocks of the carmine bee-eater arrive in the Zambezi Valley, at the height of the dry season, the bush is tinged with the red colour of its feathers, brushing the arid colours of the winter landscape
with renewed brilliance.

It is already the middle of September, and the dry season is coming to an end: in the Zambezi Valley everything is parched and arid, and water is scarce in the few remaining pools. Only in the great perennial rivers does it continue to flow and refresh thirsty animals. But in this panorama of scorched and faded colours, suddenly the bush and the banks of the Zambezi River are tinged with red.
This is, in fact, the time in which a wonderful intertropical migratory bird with characteristic carmine plumage arrives in the wooded savannas of northern Zimbabwe to mate and nest, coming from northern South Africa and Mozambique, where it spends the winter – the southern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicoides).

Adult White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides)at the Zambezi near Livingstone, Zambia. CC BY-SA 4.0/Hans Hillewaert

It is a graceful bird with colourful plumage and ranges in size from 30 to 38 centimetres. Its dazzling colours are its main characteristic, making it unmistakable: the back and chest of adult specimens are red, as is the forked tail. The head and lower abdomen are instead blue, while a black band runs from the base of the beak to the ear area, creating a characteristic black mask, which probably attenuates the glare of light during hunting.
From a perched position on a branch near the colony, Bee-eaters identify the flying insects they feed on. From there they swoop down, taking flight and chasing their prey in admirable flying acrobatics that their long, thin wings allow them. When the prey is finally captured and held firmly in its beak, the bee-eater returns to the branch it left to consume its meal. If this consists of an insect with a stinger, such as bees or wasps, the bee-eater slams it repeatedly against the branch, with rapid head movements, until the stinger is removed.

Southern carmine bee-eater, Merops nubicoides, Chobe National Park, Botswana. CC BY 2.0/ Derek Keats

When these colourful birds arrive in the Zambezi Valley, their white-fronted bee-eater cousins have just weaned their clutches and abandoned the nests dug in the river banks. Carmines, which live in large colonies, occupy abandoned nests, clean them and prepare for their brood, where the female, after mating, lays two to five eggs.
Both parents take turns in brooding, which lasts about three weeks, and in the subsequent feeding of the chicks. After a month, the young bee-eaters are able to leave the nest and take flight. The chick feeding period is a time of intense hunting for the carmine bee-eaters and the skies above the Zambezi, at this juncture, are brushed with the red plumage of these graceful birds, engaged in their wonderful aerial acrobatics. (Open Photo: Two southern carmine bee eaters in flight. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Uncovery)

Gianni Bauce/Africa

India. The life of the tea pickers.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

Grasping the fresh, light green shoots in her hand, she separates them from the plants and tosses them into the cloth bag tied with a band around her forehead. A gesture that the women of Darjeeling will repeat thousands of times. A life made of sacrifices and suffering.
But the Salesian schools try to give hope to the children
of many tea pickers.

When the siren sounds breaking the silence, the morning fog has already disappeared. Piyari had already prepared breakfast for her children in the dark except for the light of a small lamp. Like every other day, she got up before the others from the bed where the family sleeps together. She fetched water and boiled it on a small wood stove. While her family were still asleep, she swept the yard in front of the cabin, fed the rabbits and washed the clothes. The siren sounded at seven. Time to go to work.
Half an hour earlier the women of the village emerged from their huts and headed towards their work: an endless field of the intense green of the tea that flourishes here. The bushes reach up to the women’s waists while they seem to turn round this way and that almost automatically for hours and hours. They choose and fold the leaves, again and again. Each leaf has “two leaves and a bud,” just as British colonial rulers intended 150 years ago. Piyari stoops, taking the fresh, light green shoot in her hand, separates it from the plant and tosses it into the cloth tied with a ribbon on her forehead. At noon you will have a break of one hour for lunch. It’s not worth going home.

The same gesture over and over again. 123rf

And then she starts again. The same gesture over and over again. Until the heavy sack on her back is filled for the second time that day. It must weigh at least 18 kilograms. To do this she must have stooped over thousands of times. And she will receive a payment of 230 rupees, the equivalent of 2.57 euros. Translated into one kilogram, this is 1.4% of the price for which the precious tea will eventually be sold in Europe.The English used to wonder if the tea from their Indian colony would ever become a viable business. At the time, the noble drink, long reserved for the upper classes, came mainly from China and was subject to a monopoly. To break it, the English even took up arms in the mid-19th century and launched the Opium Wars. They later smuggled tea seeds across the border from China and began experimenting with growing them themselves.
North of their then capital, Calcutta, in the foothills of the Himalayas, conditions seemed ideal for this since tea requires the right combination of enough sunshine, plenty of rain and temperatures between 18 and a maximum of 30 degrees.

Woman picking tea leaves in a tea plantation. 123rf

When the siren sounds again, it is 5 pm and Piyari and her companions drag themselves with their full bags to the collection point where they empty and weigh them. Supervisors note whether each of the women has reached the 40-pound goal. When Piyari returns home it is already dusk. By the light of a candle she prays with her family, she looks at the images of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus and thanks the Lord for the day. Like all the villagers, Piyari’s family belongs to an Indian ethnic minority, many of whom are Catholic. After preparing food for dinner, Piyari chats with her husband for a while before going to bed. He works in a nearby factory. There, the tea leaves are left to wither immediately after harvesting, then rolled and fermented, turning green tea into black tea. This is then followed by sieving, drying and packaging. Then, without delay, it is sent abroad.
India is a major tea power and, after China, the largest producer in the world. Tea, and not coffee, is the most consumed drink globally. Tea is a most lucrative business but a business that leaves little for those who collect it, at least for Piyari and the half-million or so people who toil in tea cultivation in the Indian state of West Bengal. Their wages are low by Indian standards, where, according to studies, pickers’ earnings are the lowest of all occupational groups.

Worker carrying tea leaves in bag at tea plantation. 123rf

Just how bitter is the taste of this fine drink becomes evident as you make your way up a path to the “champagne of tea”, Darjeeling. While Piyari and others work lower down, in an area tea connoisseurs will call Dooars, the picture now changes with terraces perched as high as 2,000 meters above sea level. The only road ascends steeply. Like a soft, green carpet, tea covers the intermediate slopes.
Darjeeling tea is regarded by connoisseurs as the most delicious in the world. Fine in aroma, in the earliest harvest, the legendary “first flush”, “delicate and floral”. Later, when new leaves and shoots appear and the monsoon does its work, it is “strong,” “bitterly nutty,” and “copper-coloured in the cup,” just as connoisseurs of fine wines would say. Only one thing remains the same about Piyari and those who work below: their wages and their suffering.
“It’s a job that slowly wears you out. I have seen it with my mother over the years,” says Nikita, a young 19-year-old student. Like Piyari, her mother will not utter a word of complaint. Many young people are trying to get out so that fate does not repeat itself. And it is their parents who want nothing more than their success. “Otherwise, you get trapped like a frog in a well, as they say in India,” says Father José, a Salesian priest and rector of a nearby school. The Salesian is very concerned at the plight of the pickers. And he continues: “They are exploited and paid starvation wages. Although they work harder than almost anyone else, they live in poor huts, rarely have electricity and often don’t even have a bathroom. And so it is for generations.”

The Salesian school in Sonada. Photo ANS

Nikita attends the Salesian school in Sonada, the last town before Darjeeling. She confesses: “For me, going there was as real as a trip to the moon. Something far away, unimaginable. Such a good reputation, and such a fantastic lineup. How could my parents, who both work on plantations, afford such a thing?” The girl’s path therefore seemed predetermined. Only a few years of public school: reading, writing, a little arithmetic, nothing more. And then, if you’re lucky, you get your mother’s contract with the tea plantation, signed for life. A life already sealed before it even begins.
Thanks to scholarships from the Salesians, Nikita and other friends attend the Salesian school. The young girl dreams of a career far away from exploitation. The fact that something like this is possible was inspired by Father Jose: “Our colleges should be among the best in the Western Himalayas. We pay teachers good salaries, we hire high-calibre people, and we can afford to charge high college fees. The children of the plantation owners come to us. And the children of their collectors also come to us. Through school fees, we can sponsor many students who would otherwise not have a chance in life.”

Landscape of tea plantations.123rf

Away from Sonada lies one of Darjeeling’s 84 tea terraces. Its inhabitants, including those with Nepalese ancestry, are almost all Catholic and have gathered in church to pray. They joyfully welcome Father Tomy, another Salesian into the wooden building. They later praise him for their children, who are making such great progress. They also owe it to Stella and Ronit, students of the Salesian school and children of tea pickers from Darjeeling who regularly make the long journey to the village. “To give something back,” as they say, “because with our scholarships we have been given an incalculable opportunity. We will receive free training that will open completely new doors for us. So, we come here to tutor the children because we know how little they learn in state schools.” The Salesians urge young students to “Grow yourself but don’t leave others behind on your path. Learn on your own and do something for your community. You may go away but never forget Darjeeling when you sip a cup of expensive tea in Kolkata, Delhi or wherever. Because only you know what’s inside your cup.” (Open Photo: Tea picker woman collect leaves at plantation. 123rf)

Christoph Lehermayr/allewelt

African Ports. Competitiveness and Positioning in Global Supply Chains.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

Since colonial times, African ports have been the main gateway to coastal countries and their vast hinterland. We examined the performance, challenges and development prospects of three of the largest ports in sub-Saharan Africa: Lagos in West Africa, Mombasa in East Africa and Durban in South Africa.

In this globalised economy, where ports are gateways for 80% of the world’s trade, Africa’s booming economy needs to accelerate its market access and improve its congested infrastructure to meet the challenge. This is important to stimulate economic growth, diversify economies, help them become globally competitive, create jobs and reduce poverty.
One of the main problems highlighted is that, despite its size, Africa represents only a fraction of the world’s value.
One of the reasons for this is that it still has a lot of beneficiations to do, as its exports are still largely commodity-based (minerals, hydrocarbons, cocoa, palm oil and timber).

Port of Tanger Med. It is the largest port in Morocco and Africa. CC BY-SA 4.0/ NAC

Ports are not only the gateways that provide access to these exported commodities, but they can also provide platforms to transform them and add value to these products.
PwC Africa’s Capital Projects and Infrastructure (CP&I) transport and logistics consultant recently published a report concluding that it is imperative that Africa harnesses the economic potential of its ports and shipping sector if it is to realise its growth ambitions.
Competitiveness and positioning in global supply chains determine Africa’s ability to export, and improving imports supports greater economic resilience. One of the challenges facing African ports is that shipment sizes are smaller than elsewhere, which inevitably increases the unit cost of a shipment. In this context, the lack of infrastructure hampers competitiveness and diversification.
The key challenge is therefore to attract investment and create the right environment for it. PwC argues that governments can significantly improve the investment environment in a number of ways. One is to increase cooperation between countries to create efficient trade flows and to recognize the role of specific ports.

The container terminal at the Port of Djibouti. The multipurpose port of Djibouti connects Europe, the Far East, the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Skilla1st

Accordingly, investments should enhance competitive advantage and avoid white elephant redundancies that can be caused by hub wars leading to overcapacity of infrastructure in competing ports. To attract more infrastructure investment, governments are urged to move towards a landlord ownership model that allows private operators to drive port efficiency by investing in better equipment, logistics processes and systems. For example, streamlining customs processes can reduce container dwell time bottlenecks.
Increased trade volumes and more productive ports are expected to accelerate changes in global shipping routes serving Africa. The current crisis in the Red Sea, caused by Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked ships forcing many ships to divert through the Cape of Good Hope, has suddenly highlighted the global need to invest in African ports to receive ships from around the world for refueling or repairs when needed. Other challenges include reducing maritime insecurity in the Red Sea, the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, and mitigating the effects of more frequent and severe climate events. (François Misser).

The Ten most Important Ports of Africa.

According to the African Union, 38 of the 54 African states are coastal or island states and over 90% of African imports and exports are transported by sea, making the continent a strategic gateway for international trade, currently in crisis due to instability in the Red Sea.

There are around a hundred African ports and they are competing for an ever-larger slice of the global maritime trade pie. The opening of Nigeria’s “revolutionary” billion-dollar deepwater seaport in Lekki in early 2023 reflects an increasingly competitive race for major shipping hubs in Africa. Currently, a number of other major multi-billion-dollar investments are underway in some countries, including South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Angola, Egypt and Senegal. Bird Story Agency is a specialized news agency, designed to support African media. At the end of 2023, it published the ranking of the main African ports, based on the volume they can handle and their efficiency.

Morocco. Tanger Med. It is the largest port in Morocco and Africa. It has an annual handling capacity of 9 million 20-foot containers (TEU, Twenty-foot equivalent unit), exports of 1 million new vehicles and the transit of 7 million passengers and 700 thousand trucks per year. The World Bank and Standard and Poor’s Global Market Intelligence have ranked it sixth globally in terms of port efficiency with infrastructure that surpasses both African and many European ports.

Headquarters of Suez Canal Authority in Port Said. It ranks 15th in the world in terms of performance based on port calls and ships. Photo: Daniel Csörföly

Egypt. Port Said. It is Egypt’s busiest, with a capacity to handle around 5 million tons of 20-foot containers per year. Globally, it ranks 15th in terms of performance based on port calls and ships.

South Africa. Durban. It is the largest and busiest marine terminal in Southern Africa with a container handling capacity of 2.9 million TEUs and the capacity to handle over 600 thousand units of shipped vehicles. Every year more than 5,000 ships dock at the port, generating around 60% of South Africa’s trade revenue. A contract for the modernization and management of the container port was recently signed with Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Inc.

Nigeria. Leek Deep Sea. This recently expanded port is now Nigeria’s first deep-sea maritime port and one of the largest in West Africa. It can handle 2.7 million 20-foot TEUs and is designed to handle ships with a capacity exceeding 18 thousand TEUs.

South Africa. Ngqura. It is a South African deep-water container port, strategically located within a special economic zone, with a handling capacity of approximately 2 million TEUs. It has the longest breakwater (2.7 km) in South Africa.

Ivory Coast. Abidjan. After adding a second container terminal in December 2022, Ivory Coast’s main port has increased its total container handling capacity to 2.5 million TEUs per year.

Casablanca container port. It is one of the largest artificial ports in the world. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Niels Johannes

Morocco. Casablanca. With a handling capacity of approximately 1.3 million TEUs, it is one of the largest artificial ports in the world. The Moroccan port can handle 21.3 million tons of cargo per year.

Kenya. Mombasa. Considered the main gateway to East Africa for over a century, Kenya’s port has a handling capacity of 1.65 million containers. It consists of four ports: Port Reitz, Old Port, Kilindini and Port Tudor. Its title as “gateway” is increasingly contested in the region by Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Djibouti. Doraleh. The multipurpose port of Djibouti, with a capacity to handle 1.6 million containers per year, connects Europe, the Far East, the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf. The latest 2020 Global Container Port Performance Index from the World Bank and IHS Markit recognized Djibouti as the leading container port in Africa and 61st globally in terms of efficiency. A new railway connects the port with landlocked Ethiopia.

Ghana. Tema. The busiest port in Ghana. It recently added a new terminal that can accommodate ships of up to 22 thousand TEUs, compared to the previous 5 thousand. The new terminal also increases Ghana’s container handling capacity from 800,000 to approximately 3.7 million TEUs per year.

The African Dance. The celebration of the life.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

In traditional Africa, dance is more than entertainment. It is a celebration of life. This is why, watching Africans dance can give a clue of both their core values and main economic activities.
It even gives insight into the geography of their land and
the history of their tribe.

Cattle keepers dance jumping. These are men of the spear; they are fighters by nature since they have to defend themselves and their cattle against raiders and predators. It seems as if they jump as high as possible to detect enemies from afar.
Their women folk imitate the domestic animals by fixing something that looks like an animal tail on their skirts or by raising and extending their hands over their heads. These look like horns. The Karimojong and the Bahima in Uganda perform such dances. Farmers and keepers of goats or sheep carry out fertility dances.

Tanzania. The Maasai. Cattle keepers dance jumping. It seems as if they jump as high as possible to detect enemies from afar. Pixabay

The Bantu and some Nilotics fall under this group. Their dance consists of shaking the waist and the backside. Some of these dances are overtly sexy. They indicate the fertility of people, animals and the land. These dances call for the participation of all. While dancers and the drummers perform, the spectators sing and clap hands. A fisherman’s dance is centred on the chest. You need a good chest to raw loaded boats or canoes without an engine.
Sometimes the imitation of pulling nets is not missing in their dance. This type of dance is sometimes mixed with elements of fertility dances because some fishing communities do agriculture too. People around Lake Kyoga in Uganda and other water bodies dance this way.
Mountain people dance by either stamping hard on the ground or agitating their shoulders. Climbing daily, one has to take a firm grip on the ground and keep bending. These two actions involve especially the feet and the shoulders. Note that mountain people do not carry loads on the head or children on the back; the load is carried on the back and the children on the side, next to the ribs.
The Tswana dance in Southern Africa is a dance of footsteps. This is the dance of hunters. While hunting, especially where one has to run after the animal, it is the legs and the feet that are most active both for the hunter and the hunted; the swifter, the better.

Kenya. Turkana dance. Dancing does not only connect humans to nature, it connects them to the spiritual world too. File swm

People who migrated, fighting their way to the land they now call their own perform war dances. The Bwola of the Acholi in Uganda and the Zulu dance in South Africa are examples of a war dance. Before the creation of multi-tribal countries, such people used to carry out raids on their neighbours. Their survival depended very much on war tactics and the courage of their menfolk. Such dances are warlike and the songs are military. The dancers are grouped in rows.
Rows are lines and lines are joined points with an infinite possibility of continuity. Society lives on despite the presence of the enemies of life. In kingdoms or large chiefdoms, apart from the dances that imitate the main economic activity, there will always be a war dance. Some African dances are cosmic.
The dancers hold tree branches or sticks, put on animal skins and feathers of particular birds and paint themselves with chalk. Whether the dance takes place under the sun or the moon and the stars around a fire, such dances have most of the cosmic elements represented. Nature is called upon to enhance life. Some sicknesses are cured through dances. Therapeutic dances, like the Vimbuza of the Tumbuka in Malawi, are known all over Africa. People dance around the patient in circles until he/she shows signs of recovery. Among the Baganda in Uganda, people get rid of mumps by dancing around the jjirikiti tree!
Funeral dances are common in Africa, especially at the death of prominent elders, chiefs, and kings. This is the celebration of a life well lived and the afterlife of one who is destined to be an ancestor. Africans call upon spirits and divinities while singing and dancing. Therefore, one should not be surprised to see that Africans have introduced dances into Christian liturgy, for African religions are danced-out religions.

Niger. The Bororo. The Gerewol festival. With painted faces, smiling and with their lips painted black, begin the first moves of a ritual dance.File swm

To dance is to celebrate life and life is lived in common. Many African people dance in circular groups. Therefore, those who dance alone are called witches and wizards. The symbolism of unity is very clear here. A circle is a universal symbol of unity and harmony. It also represents birth, survival, and death. In dance, it is a circle of life where every individual should find his or her place.
It has the dynamism of a constant loop pointing to the continuity and perfection to which every human group aspires.
Dancing does not only connect humans to nature, it connects them to the spiritual world too. Dance enables an encounter with the divine and expresses a relationship that already exists. Sometimes, through possession and the phenomenon of masked dancers, the spiritual world joins the social one in dance. The horizontal dimension where people are united among themselves and the vertical one where people are united with the spiritual world make up what we can call the fullness of life. A dancing community is often a healthy community. (Open Photo: Zulu dancers on beach. 123rf)

Edward Kanyike

South Africa. Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu.

Monday, 1 July 2024 8:00

Activists Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu have stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off South Africa’s Eastern Cape, in an area known as the Wild Coast.

Organizing their community, Nonhle and Sinegugu secured their victory by asserting the rights of the local community to protect their marine environment. By halting oil and gas exploration in a particularly biodiverse area, they protected migratory whales, dolphins, and other wildlife from the harmful effects of seismic testing.

The Wild Coast is unusually rich in marine biodiversity due to the Agulhas Current, which churns up nutrients. The area provides habitat for migratory humpback and southern right whales that calve offshore, and is a hub for many endemic and migratory fish species that have been depleted elsewhere in their range. The 360,000-acre Mpondoland marine protected area is a major sanctuary and boon to species survival.

In October 2021, media reported that Shell planned to launch seismic surveys in December off the Wild Coast to prospect for oil and gas reserves below the seabed. The South African government granted the company exploration rights in 2014 and renewed them in 2021. However, the process of conducting seismic surveys to map offshore oil and gas reserves can severely damage marine ecosystems.

The surveys include blasting the seafloor with high-powered sonic air guns that reach 250 decibels. The high-decibel blasts can be heard for miles and directly harm zooplankton, fish eggs and larvae, and, especially, marine mammals, which can suffer hearing loss and disrupted communication, struggle to locate prey during seismic surveys, and may be forced away from foraging and mating habitats. Scientists assert that establishing offshore gas and oil drilling platforms also increases the likelihood of a potentially devastating oil spill along the Wild Coast.

Nonhle Mbuthuma, 46, and Sinegugu Zukulu, 54, are Mpondo people from the Amadiba administrative area of Mpondoland, the traditional territory of the Mpondo people, located within the Wild Coast region. Amadiba is home to about 3,000 families. From 2007 to 2018, Nonhle and Sinegugu worked together on a campaign against a proposed titanium mine along the Amadiba shoreline.

Nonhle is the cofounder and spokesperson for the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), a community-based social movement that formed to fight the proposed mine. Her grandfather was a traditional healer and she learned early on that nature takes care of those who take care of it.

Sinegugu is a program manager for Sustaining the Wild Coast, an NGO that works with Indigenous communities to promote environmental sustainability, and earns income from ecotourism in the Wild Coast.
He grew up understanding that “natural life is intertwined with our lives,” and published a book documenting the traditional medicinal uses of plants by the Mpondo people, highlighting their deep relationship
with the natural world.

In November 2021, Sinegugu learned – via social media – about the imminent seismic testing. Within two weeks, he joined forces with Nonhle and the ACC to organize a meeting of the entire coastal community of Amadiba to decide how to proceed. Because Nonhle and Sinegugu had campaigned successfully against the proposed titanium mine, they were able to mobilize the community quickly and raise awareness about the threats posed by seismic testing.

Shell had consulted some commercial fishermen and predominantly white recreational fishing associations in the region. The company claimed to have consulted traditional Mpondo leaders as well, but none of the coastal communities in Amadiba and elsewhere on the Wild Coast had been consulted nor made aware of the plan.

To build their case, Nonhle and Sinegugu met with Amadiba community members and recorded affidavits of their objections to the seismic testing. Community members stated that, according to their traditional spiritual beliefs, their ancestors live in the sea.

Portals along the Wild Coast allow Mpondo healers and elders to communicate with their ancestors. The Mpondo people have a duty to protect these portals, which would be disturbed by the seismic blasts from Shell’s oil and gas exploration.
As Nonhle notes, there is no distinction between people and nature: “The ocean is a sacred place for us.”

As part of the campaign, Nonhle and Sinegugu organized a seven-kilometre “community walk” along the coast, summoning ancestors to support their legal case. They released videos and media statements urging other coastal communities to join in protest against the proposed seismic survey. In December 2021, the campaign submitted 400 pages of affidavits, including community and expert testimony that Nonhle
and Sinegugu had collected.
On December 28, 2021, the High Court ruled in their favour, mandating an immediate cessation of Shell’s seismic survey operations.

With a stop order in place, Nonhle and Sinegugu lodged a legal challenge to the environmental approval the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy had granted Shell. The duo partnered with Sustaining the Wild Coast, All Rise Law Firm, Greenpeace, Natural Justice, Amnesty International, and fishing communities along the coast to draw more attention to the campaign.
Nonhle organized rallies to assert the community’s right to say no to the offshore oil and gas exploration, and Sinegugu gave media interviews laying out their case. In May 2022, the High Court held hearings to determine the validity of Shell’s exploration permit.

On September 1, 2022, the High Court ruled that Shell’s permission to conduct seismic surveys on the Wild Coast had been granted unlawfully—and the permit was rescinded. The court found that Shell’s consultations with select leaders were inadequate and should have included the entire affected coastal communities. The court further ruled that, when granting approval to Shell, the government had failed to consider the potential harm to local fishermen’s livelihoods, the impact on Mpondo cultural and spiritual rights, and the contribution of gas and oil exploitation to climate change.

Nonhle and Sinegugu’s achievement also brought broader legal recognition of the cultural and spiritual rights of South African Indigenous communities that seek to protect their environments—the first time a successful environmental challenge was made based on ties to customary cultural, spiritual, and economic rights.

Last April, Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu received the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel Prize”. (The Goldman Environment Report – Photo Goldman Environmental Prize)

The Red Sea: how fragile global trade is.

Saturday, 1 June 2024 8:00

The threats from the Houthis in the Red Sea persist: the crisis continues to heavily impact global transport and trade, with significant repercussions on the world economy.

Eight months, two naval missions and dozens of missiles later, the crisis in the Red Sea continues. The Houthis continue to threaten the world’s commercial fleet, so much so that last month the traffic of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and methane tankers through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait was down by almost 70% compared to November.

The cost of commercial freight, which exploded in the uncertainty of the first weeks of the crisis, has now settled at a much higher value than in the recent past: transporting a container from Shanghai to Genoa costs over 2.5 times more, and also routes not directly affected by the crisis have seen costs increase by 50% or more. The more time passes, the more it seems that the crisis is destined to last a long time.

Who are the Houthis and why this crisis?
The ongoing trade and transportation crisis in the Red Sea is the consequence of Houthi attacks on commercial ships transiting the region. The term Houthis refers to the Ansar Allah movement, also known as Ansarullah (or from the Arabic “partisans of God”), an armed and political group active in northern Yemen.
Founded in the 1990s, the movement is mainly made up of Zaydis, a minority branch of Shiite Islam.

The Houthis have historically opposed the United States and Israel, intensifying their activities after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Over the years they became protagonists of an open conflict with the regime of the president and dictator of Yemen from 1990 to 2012, Ali Abdallah Saleh.

In 2015 they took control of important regions of Yemen, leading the country towards civil war. Backed by Iran, the Houthis are fighting against Saleh’s internationally recognized government backed by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

Over the years, there has never been a stable peace despite mediation efforts. With the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the Houthis began missile launches against Israel and systematic attacks against ships off the coast of Yemen, in the Red Sea, in a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians.

What is the economic impact of this crisis?
Europe and the Middle East are the regions that could suffer the greatest impact, for several reasons. Egypt, whose economy depends significantly on revenues from passages through the Suez Canal, is already
suffering heavily.

The Suez Canal is the shortest shipping route between Asia and Europe, with around 12% of global maritime trade passing through it, and represents a key source of foreign exchange earnings for Cairo, contributing $9.4 billion to the national budget in fiscal year 2022/23, approximately 2.3% of the country’s GDP.

According to the government in Cairo, revenues from the management of the Canal have decreased by more than 50% since the outbreak of the crisis. In addition to problems in balancing the accounts, this crisis represents a problem due to the lack of inflow of dollars.

As far as Europe is concerned, the main problems depend on some factors, which are more fully exposed here. In summary, it concerns (1) the risk of seeing the Mediterranean excluded from the main trade routes in favour of the route that passes through the Cape of Good Hope; (2) the increase in transportation costs; (3) the fact that these increases could translate into a more general increase in inflation.

Beyond this particular case, this crisis represents yet another shock for the world economy in a few years, with an impact in particular on the energy and logistics sectors. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, we can record, in succession, the grounding of the Evergiven container ship in the Suez Canal, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza and the Houthi attacks up to the Iranian attack on Israel, all in a growing context of competition between great powers, the USA and China, which leads to the fragmentation of the global economy. Such a scenario requires a strong adaptation of companies to unexpected events and greater regionalization chains of value.

Furthermore, these shocks do not only have a cyclical effect, but risk slowing down growth for a prolonged time. The most significant data, as indicated by the International Monetary Fund, is a decisive increase precisely from the pandemic onwards – compared to the previous three decades – in the volatility of commodity prices (starting with gas,
oil and coal).

However, again according to the International Monetary Fund, the growth prospects for 2024 are improving compared to what was hypothesized six months ago (3.2% against 3%) and remain stable also for 2025. The future, however, is still uncertain and an escalation in the Middle East could cause a negative impact of up to 0.5% on global growth.

What was the international reaction?
Amid the initial uncertainty, at the end of last year, the United States and its Western allies first tried to use regional partners (first and foremost Egypt, the country most involved in the crisis) to try to find a negotiated solution. However, the Houthi leadership has always clearly refused any attempt to moderate its demands, which remain those of an end to the current conflict between Israel and Hamas and the lifting of the
siege by Israeli forces.

The United States waited until the end of December to begin responding in a military manner, first with attacks aimed at the group’s maritime actions (such as the attempted boarding of some commercial ships) and then, at the beginning of January, actively launching the military operation Prosperity Guardian, in which the United Kingdom and 11 other countries participate. Since mid-February, the EU has also launched its own operation, Aspides (“shield” in Greek). The mission, led by Italy and Greece, involves the active participation of Italian, French, German, Greek and Belgian military assets.

Despite the joint efforts of the navies of two dozen countries, however, the operations have not yet succeeded in achieving their goal of restoring freedom of navigation along the strait. Although Houthi attacks have significantly reduced over the last month, commercial companies are still reluctant to resume transit along the Red Sea at full speed. In short, the Houthis only needed to use means that were not excessively expensive to constitute a credible and lasting threat to those operating in the region, putting 12% of world trade at risk. (ISPI) – (123rf)

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